Arena show fulfills destiny for Lewis

Ryan Lewis tells this story.

In it, he’s a kid attending an Easter service with his family at the Spokane Arena, back when he called Spokane home. At some point during the proceedings, Lewis recalled last month, the budding musician leaned over to his dad and asked how much it would cost to rent the Arena and put on a concert.

He never found out, of course. But on Oct. 23, Lewis will be performing on the Arena stage as one half of the hit hip-hop duo Macklemore & Ryan Lewis.

The Spokane stop will be second show of the duo’s fall arena tour – it starts in Portland and heads to Missoula and Boise from here – and it promises to be a hot ticket. The Seattle-based group easily sold out a show last year here at the Knitting Factory, and fans snapped up an allotment of tickets offered to them this past week during a special presale. The public can buy tickets through any TicketsWest outlet beginning at 10 a.m. today.

Joining Macklemore and Lewis will be Brooklyn emcee Talib Kweli and Mississippi’s own Big K.R.I.T. The tour will take them from the Northwest to arenas in Boston, Chicago, Atlanta, D.C., New York City (a two-night stand at the Theater at Madison Square Garden), Miami and Houston before they begin a march up the West Coast: Los Angeles, San Diego and San Francisco, ending at Seattle’s Key Arena on Dec. 12.

For details, visit www.macklemore.com.